Cramming all of this into a single item, since I'm way up against it here in Portland where I'm speaking tonight (and all weekend) at the National Summit to Save Our Elections. If you're in the 'hood! Please come on by and say hello!

UPDATE: Our erstwhile engineer from our BRAD SHOWS in Crawford, Otie Mclay is here, and informs me he's currently streaming as much of the conference as possible LIVE right now at KPFTX.org! Go listen in!

Got a call from the Ron Isana radio show folks inviting me to debate with ANN COULTER tomorrow morning at 9am PT (12noon ET). That should be fun. On Delay and Frist, etc. Will try to find a minute or two to bone up on it all late night tonight I guess! --- Insana is nationally syndicated all over the place.

UPDATE:See this item for listening links to hear the tape-delay version as it streams live again Saturday @ 3pm ET (Noon PT), and then for the archive posted thereafter.

It was nice to be in-studio, as well, this morning with Thom Hartmann up here. He's agreed to appear on The BRAD SHOW tomorrow (LIVE Saturday, 7p-11p ET or 4p-8p PT, with reBRADCast on Sunday at Noon ET). We'll have tons of stuff from the conference, loads of guests, including, but not limited to David Cobb, Clint Curtis, Robert Koehler, Ellen Theisen, and many more Election Reform All-Stars! We won't have phone lines, however, so you'll need to play along here at The BRAD BLOG in our Open Thread during the show.

It's a great column, that deserves to be read in its entirety, headlined, "Sadly, Dieb-Throat doesn't disappoint". It starts this way...

When I wrote last week's Dieb-Throat column about a whistleblower revealing security risks in Diebold touch-screen voting machines, I was deliberately setting myself up for a sucker punch. Go ahead, clean my clock. Make me see stars.

I awaited a deluge of feedback, ridiculing me for believing anything posted on a blog (www.bradblog.com), along with mountains of evidence showing that Diebold's machines are perfectly reliable and completely tamper-free, and that our election results were never and could never be secretly altered.

LaGuercio did receive "a deluge of feedback," but it wasn't what she had expected. Read the entire thing to find out how it came out. Wish I had more time to cover it today! But suffice to say, a new Election Reform All-Star is born in the media and her article ends simply "America - 1776-2004. R.I.P."

I'm reminded of the old Native American (I think) saying, "A path is laid one stone at a time."

Laying stones from Portland, OR...one at a time...and with your help...Talk to ya on the air tomorrow night! Brad

ALL you have to do with that one, is spin her words back against her and point out the facts:

For instance point out she said that Ted Kennedy would be defended if he was in the same situation as Delay, but that according to your book Coulter, you said that liberals or anyone in the Kennedy family are sick disgusting people.

Do you stand by those comments? Oh and also, is it true you've gone out with David Dreir and several gay republicans?

Remember this one hit liner: "Ann, I understand you think voter fraud is a problem."However according to these results, there is only 20-something odd actual cases of voter fraud that have been proven. Meanwhile, Ohio just indicted several election workers and is hearing a court case on Thomas Noe's laundered money. The governor was convicted, what do you have to say to that?

And then don't forget, "Diebold machines have open backdoors, so doesn't that prove anyone could steal the election? Wouldn't Cathy Cox or anyone who lobbies for Diebold like to steal their own election and put themselves in office? So then wouldn't it make more sense to have VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS in every booth, rather than voter IDs?"

"You're talking about the difference between hundreds of votes with voter fraud, and millions of votes with election fraud. It would be far more important to have verified ballots, then it would take the fingerprint of everyone right?"

"Or is that a homeland security function now? By the way, I'm all for election reform. I just think we need to do it the way the states want to do it according to the citizens."

Please talk about making sure NJ votes count for Corzine in November!!!!

Brad - I e-mailed you, Thom (and Louise), Hedda Foil and the Coalition for Peace Action (we are working on voting reform with Congressman Holt) with the ideas below -

I think Iím ready to take leadership on coordinating this in NJ because I donít think anyone else is. Iím still asking around and the answers are coming slowly. I donít know what the best strategy will be to be certain our votes will count - or if they are already magically in place - but, I have a couple of ideas if they arenít.

1 Ė Mail in absentee voting.

Voter keeps a copy of ballot and sends a copy or reports it to a centralized NJ database (Maybe we could use a database already in existence?).

2 Ė Have math and social studies students conduct exit polls outside of polling places located in schools with help from teachers and colleges students.

This would turn the polling activity into an authentic learning experience that would provide an opportunity to apply math / interviewing skills to a real situation that students have an enormous stake in. Just let the right wingers try to steal an election while our kids are watching!

Let me know what you think Ė I hope it will be a topic at the conference this weekend. Iíll try to listen in if I can. I hope that someone will archive the audio so we will be able to listen later though. There is a lot at stake.

---------

Today, as over 100 of us marched through campus to protest CondiLiestoUs Rice, I had an opportunity to talk to some students and leaders of the Coalition.

Have a great weekend. Wish I could be in Portland to brainstorm with you all!!

Today, as over 100 of us marched through Princeton Univ. campus to protest CondiLiestoUs Rice, I had an opportunity to talk to some of the progressive student leaders and leaders of the Coalition about the voting issue. There are more people I need to talk to, but it's so hard getting answers!! Anyway, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to get NJ's gov. election this November onto your conference brainstorming agenda.

Post here or pm me. Hedda says she'll get back to e-mail on Monday. Not sure about Thom. I know he gets tons.

Me again... I think I figured out how to make exit polling for kids REALLY simple, completely discreet, more transparent and a fun learning activity for the kiddies

1- Make paper copies of the sample ballots and
deploy activists to work with students of math/social studies in their schools and at other polling places all over NJ.

2-Have kids give the voters a sample ballot to complete as it was completed in the booth. Have the voter fold it up (when complete) and put it into a box (that is painted black??)

3- Have kids, teachers and activist helpers count up the exit poll results and see if there is any discrepancy between exit poll percentage and actual vote percentage. Try to get a huge sample by getting the kids to be as charming as possible when giving sample ballots.

4 - Getting the kids involved gives them the stake that they deserve in THEIR future, helps them understand what an election is and why it's so important to make sure our votes are counted correctly, gives the vote counting process an air of transparency because, of course, we'll want to invite the local media in to show the kids taking an interest in the election and learning all about the math involved when they are finished.

I don't think it's a good idea to have math students count the votes at all! This is because I screw up all the time and cut funds for math education and calculus! Leave EVERY child behind!!! That's my motto! I figure that kids can study math at home. And if they don't study math at home, they can watch football or something!
As for the Portland Election Summitt, it doesn't matter how much proof and evidence you come up with. You can come up with mountains of proof! Know what I'll do? I'll just pardon myself! Whether the constitution allows me to pardon myself or not, I'll just do it anyhow! Because I'm the Prez and you can't touch me on account of I'm a world champion asshole! I think that I'm the greatest because nobody can get to me! I'll drink all the Jim Beam and Jack Daniels that I want! Furthermore, I just love to smoke marijuana and I'll smoke pot to the max!
I just love being your bullshit president!

Man-Coulter? When is this going to stop? He-she has got to be knocked off the radar.
I think all debate with this slug should be boycotted.
You want to debate, get another butt-hole surfin' neo-con further up the food chain. Like some indicted type, or a high ranking public official of color and a "Phd" on the Bush payroll.
My boy, your scraping the bottom of the barrel. You don't have to stoop.

Wow, Brad, you did AMAZING on Lars Larsen! And to be fair, I thought Larsen was fair to you. He let you speak and didn't steamroll right over you in classic NeoThug style. Maybe this planted a seed of free thought in the heads of 6 or 7 of his listeners. Maybe even in Larsen himself.

G'day KIRA!
Went away with the family for a week, enjoyed bushwalking and the fresh air.
No internet, so I was out of the loop for a bit.

Brad handled Lars brilliantly I thought, poor Lars, so hopelessly stuck on those phony AC4VR/GOP talking points.
Game, Set & Match to Brad Friedman
I believe any listener possessing an open mind would have found Brad's calm delivery of facts compelling!
Well done Brad!

Sue, I really like your idea about the students polling voters. Could this idea somehow be promoted nation-wide???

Peggy -

I will try to round up enough people in NJ to participate. The Coalition for Peace Action in Princeton (peacecoalition.org) is serving as a network for voting rights activism in NJ. Our biggest push has been to help get Rush Holt's bill passed.

Ideally, a database like those used to set up house parties could be used to set up kids polls at polling places around NJ and to report the results. Linking up with PDA, DFA and MoveOn could help get the world out.

Teachers of math and civics could brainstorm lesson plans that could tie the activity into standards in a related forum. If it works, I would think that by 2006 we could have an interesting new check on our vote auditing process and engaging lesson plans for teachers to use that would provide an authentic learning experience for the kids.

I don't know how to set up those kinds of data collection systems, that is why I'm reaching out to the voting rights activists meeting this weekend to help with brainstorming.

From my experience with offering enrichment programs in schools and to after school programs, I know that change happens SLOWLY. Another complication (or expense) could be getting the ballots copied and in place. I'm thinking that highlighter pens could be used to mark the sample ballots so they wouldn't need to be adapted to make space for marking.

I will be unavailable tonight during the BradShow online blogging - I hope that this idea can be tossed around with people who could help make this idea a reality.

Hey Brad, when you debate with Ann she's gonna ask you to 'prove' the allegations against Tom Delay. Her point is that he is innocent until proven guilty. While this is true, her next argument will be that this indictment is just an attack on Delay by a partisan democrat Earl. This is not true, since 11 of his past 15 indictments have all been democrats.

Polling on Impeachment
"Does the public favor an investigation into grounds for impeachment of President Bush? We have no way of knowing, because the pollsters aren't asking. The After Downing Street coalition has begun collecting donations to hire mainstream professional pollsters to ask the questions that need to be asked. It doesn't take much money, but can have a tremendous impact. Learn more and contribute here:http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/polling"

IN THIS corner!....cradling the fetus of an unborn neocon and wielding the fiery, forked tongue of Lucifer:
MAAAN COULTER!!.... Dastardly Darling of the Rabid Right!!

AAAAND IN THIS corner!...holding aloft the sacred, sullied remnants of Democracy & Freedom and armed with the righteous, flaming Torch of Truth:
BRAAAD FRIEDMAN!!....Defender of Justice, Champion of Truth-seekers, and Blogmaster Extraordinaire!!!

It disgusts me how the media gives mAnn Coulter so much air time to spew her hate for America . Democrats and most of all DEMOCRACY !

I read that the transvestite mAnn Coulter was born in 1960 . That would make the thing 45 ish . Besides it's sex change the trani has had a lot of other work done ! but it doesn't cover up the evil demons inside or the pea size brain !

p.s I really hate the nasaly voice ! I am from Connecticut ( where mAnn Coulter claims it is from ) we do not talk like this -